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fish finder rig

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finder fish rig
18K views 31 replies 16 participants last post by  speedy pete 
#1 ·
what is it and how do i make it....lol
 
#4 ·
That could still work. There are a couple benefits of the sinker slide. One is that the fish will not feel the weight immediately when it picks up the bait. Secondly, if you give the line some slack, your bait can drift away from the sinker, especially if you're fishing in some current. The position of your bait isn't as restricted by the length of the leader.
 
#8 ·
Hey leet,
I've only used balloons for fishing live macks with Roccus, but I'm sure that they'd work well for any live baitfish or even chunks if you're fishing in some current that will take it out. The nice thing about it is that it will keep your bait from hiding down in the bottom structure and you won't get hung up in rocks or seaweed.

Use a fishfinder slide on your line above your leader and tie the balloon to that with a rubber band. To limit how far the balloon can slide on your line (thus limiting how deep your bait can go) make a little rubber band knot around your shock leader above the fishfinder slide, small enough to still go through the guides on your pole, yet big enough that the fishfinder slide doesn't go over it easily. How far up the line you put the rubber band is really going to depend on the depth of the water you're fishing in and/or how deep the bassies are holding. Unless you're fishing in pretty shallow water, you'll want to allow the slide to travel up your line a good 6-10 feet from your hook. If you're using live bait, you don't really have to cast it, just toss it out and let the swimmer do the work,, or if fishing chunks from the shore, you'd need some current to help you out.

The purpose of the rubber band as a stopper for the balloon is that your baitfish won't be strong enough to pull the slide over a knotted rubber band, thereby limiting how deep it can dive. Yet at the same time, when you hook up with a decent sized fish, chances are that it's going to want to dive down deeper than your rubber band. In this case the fishfinder slide will usually either pop over the little rubber band knot, or the rubber band knot will slide up your wet line, allowing the fish to run where it will with your balloon still on or near the surface. You'll probably still lose some balloons, but most of the time it will just slide up your line when you get a strike.

Hope that helps!! Kudos to Roccus for teaching me that!!
 
#10 ·
A Better Fishfinder

A difficulty with surf fishing using modern braids is that over the course of a few casts they can cut through your common plastic fish-finder sleeves sending your sinker one way and your bait the other. This can be particularly problematic when attempting to heave heavy weights a long distance. An easy solution to this is to use a billfisher sleeve swivel in place of the plastic fish-finder. As an additional bonus the extra length of the sleeve keeps the braid from twisting around the sinker, a common occurrence with regular fish-finder rigs.

Font Symbol Metal Art Fashion accessory
 
#14 ·
Sudsy said:
A Better Fishfinder

A difficulty with surf fishing using modern braids is that over the course of a few casts they can cut through your common plastic fish-finder sleeves sending your sinker one way and your bait the other. This can be particularly problematic when attempting to heave heavy weights a long distance. An easy solution to this is to use a billfisher sleeve swivel in place of the plastic fish-finder. As an additional bonus the extra length of the sleeve keeps the braid from twisting around the sinker, a common occurrence with regular fish-finder rigs.

Sudsy,
That's quite a coincidence, I was thinking about something just like this the other night as I watched my plastic sinker slide get cut deeper and deeper with every cast, till I had to change it....I was thinking about how to do it better and came up with the tube idea as shown in the picture, but the little swivel, that's a nice touch I hadn't considered.....I'll have to find a few of those, Thanks!

Ed
 
#18 ·
Hey Chin,
It's real easy. First upload your picture to the album (link at top of page), then click on your photo once it's in the album and copy the URL address from the address bar of your browser.

When you're typing your message and want to insert the picture, click the Img (image) button, paste the address of your picture, then click the Img button again.

It should look like this when you're done:



I disabled the BBCode in this post so that you can see what it will look like when you're typing,,, as soon as you it Submit, the photo will replace what you see above.
 
#19 ·
Improved Fish finder Rig (steelhead style)



This is what I use in place of the fish finder. It is a classic Great Lakes steelhead/samon rig that we use for presenting flies or spawn to fish in snaggy rivers while minimizing the fish's ability to feel the sinker. 1st tie a couple inches of mono (the dropper) to a plainslid swivel and tie a swivel snap on the other side of the dropper for attaching sinkers. Have the dropper mono be less than your main line (i use 40lb for my shocker so my dropper is 25lb). Slide the dropper onto your main line and then put a bead on, then tie a swivel snap to the end of your main line. You attach your leaders to the main line's swivel snap. There are 3 advantages to this set up. 1) It will last longer than a fish finder and will always slide nicely. Even with mono after a couple hours of hard casting the fish finders get grooves 2) Less time retying. If your sinker gets snagged, unlike with a fish finder set-up, just your dropper brakes ,and you still have your leader and main line swivel. 3) Much cheaper. Buy cheap 30 pound or so swivels for a dollar for a dozen instead of 3 bucks for 2 fish finders.

(U don't need the beads near the hook. I just like using glow beads at night)
 
#20 ·
That looks like a nice set up. Doesn't the pyramid sinker get hung up more easily than a bank sinker though? I usually fish around a lot of rocks, but there's one spot I go with a sand/mud bottom and pretty good current where I've been thinking of trying a pyramid sinker,,, thinking that it might hold better as even a 6 oz bank sinker slides along the bottom pretty well there. I've never used em, but it looks like the pyramid sinker would hold better to this type of bottom, am I right?? :chin:
 
#21 ·
Baitrunner

I just took out one of my rigs hanging on a rod. The pyramid sinker will definitely hang up more than a bank sinker. If it's snaggy use the bank sinker. I just had the pyramid sinker because where I just fished last week was not snaggy and there was heavy current, but i still use the same rig b/c it slides more nicely than a fish finder. What I've been using in heavy current areas with lots of current and snags on my rods that can't handle much weight are those sinkers with the wires sticking out of them. They will hold in heavy current and anchor onto structure untill you yank with the rod and the wire sweeps back detaching the sinker fron the "snag". I just bought a heaver finally (a 12XH tsunami) to use in heavy current areas so i won't have to be using those special sinkers anymore. Tell me how it works out. Just make sure your dropper is not too long, otherwise, it'll get tangled.
 
#25 ·
I went back and fixed the picture.

My bad, must have deleted it from my photobucket page
(one more reason why we should all upload pictures directly to here rather then link em from other places)

This is a Billfisher sleeve, normally used in offshore applications, but works great as a fishfinder
 
#27 ·
I like the idea behind those things too, but they tend to spread, separate and go flying on a hard cast. I had 5 of them, lost every one on the cast.
I can understand it with 6 or 8 oz but the last one I sent off to Portugal was with 3 oz and a half a clam.

Where I really like the idea, is for situations where you're not trying to throw far, or not throwing at all, like on a boat or in an inlet.
 
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